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Palm Court Is Closed, but Not for Long

By James Barron January 9, 2009 9:15 amJanuary 9, 2009 9:15 am

“Ooooooooooooooooooo — I absolutely love the Plaza,” declared Eloise, the 6-year-old heroine of the children’s books that chronicled her adventures in the castlelike hotel at Fifth Avenue and Central Park South. But for the last week, there has been less to love.

A spokesman for Elad Properties, the company that owns the Plaza, said the shutdown was only temporary. “They will be reopening as soon as possible,” said the spokesman, Lloyd Kaplan. “The Palm Court is one of the most spectacular places in town, and that demands that you have food and service and ambience and everything else that meets that kind of standard.”

Since it reopened last year in the wake of the Plaza’s $400 million makeover, the Palm Court was run by Fairmont Hotels and Resorts, which operates the hotel part of the renovated Plaza (it also has 181 condominiums). A spokeswoman for the hotel said no one would talk about why the Palm Court had closed or whether it had fallen short of expectations.

Mr. Kaplan said the Palm Court would reopen “as soon as possible, better than ever.” A spokeswoman for the restaurateur Joey Allaham, the managing partner of the Oak Room at the Plaza, said that he was in talks to take over the Palm Court. “We don’t have any information on a deal yet,” she said.

I had no idea the Palm Court was even still OPEN! Were they also still doing their Sunday brunch, or just afternoon tea? If the problem was lower business, perhaps it was due to the fact that most people probably didn’t realize it was open. As far as I knew, the Plaza from years ago was dead and buried and the entire building was just condos…

i’m not surprised. having lived all my life in either NYC or the surrounding area, the Plaza has become part of my life, if only as a once-a-year treat. i was there, once again, on Dec. 30, 2008 with my friends for our annual holiday drink at the Oak Bar. we eagerly looked foward to seeing how all that money was spent on the renovation. We were all underwhelmed and disappointed to say the least! It felt like being in a marble mausoleum. we left without having our drink and repaired to the St. Regis King Cole bar where we fortified ourselves, regained our holiday spirit and continued our “march” down 5th Ave. to see the tree!

Our party of four had two drinks each at the “Rose Club” at the Plaza in late December. (Not my idea, but that of an out of towner). The Palm Court, our real destination, was inexplicably closed. The couple next to us was dead drunk and obnoxious, but the manager refused to escort them out, until they physically threatened him, which then required him to bring in two NYC cops to drag them out. The drunken husband was screaming that he wanted to immediately go over to Park Avenue and assault Bernie Madoff, so maybe there were extenuating circumstances. I was then assaulted with a bill that came to $132.00 before tip ($16.50 per drink). I wish Eloise had been there to witness the whole bizarre experience. Maybe she would not love the Plaza so much. I’ll still go to the Oak Bar once a year, however.

The Plaza Hotel is not doing well at all, a friend of mine works there. The hotel has around 250 rooms and only about 20% of them were occupied last night. With room rates starting at $700 per night, very few people can afford it. The top presidential suite sells for $15,000 a night. The hotel is a flop and now they realize it was a mistake to spend $400 million to renovate. If the rooms sold for $300 a night, they may be able to survive, but not at $700 & up.

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